Truck and bus production rose 12% to 37,465 units for Toyota and 37.9% for Daihatsu. Hino output rose 10.8% to 9,731, its eighth consecutive monthly rise.

Group output last month was off 1.6% to 470,724, the first fall in three months.

Group sales were off 6.1% to 293,552. Toyota noted that Lexus sales of 3,287 were down 17.9% year on year, minivehicles (a Daihatsu speciality fell 4.7% to 83,000 and Hino standard trucks fell 16.6% to 4,500.

Group exports rose 4.5% to 273,361 and overseas production was up 4.9% to 403,993 units.

For the fiscal year ended 31 March, Toyota group's worldwide production was up 6.4% to 9,664,783 units. Japan output rose 1.2% to 5,160,293 units and overseas production was up 13.2% to 4,504,490.

Daihatsu's 3.7% fall to 785,373 was the first in five years while Toyota's 1.9% rise to 4,262,641 was a record and the sixth straight year of increase.

Exports from Japan rose 4.8% due mainly to increased shipments to Asia and the Middle East.

From:just-auto.com editorial team